Mettlach (Moselle Franconian Mettlich) is a municipality in the Saarland district of Merzig-Wadern in Germany.
By train
Mettlach railway station. Regular direct connections to
Saarbrücken, Mannheim, Trier and Koblenz, from where you can reach
long-distance connections throughout Germany.
On the street
The broom is on the B51, it goes from Saarburg to the A6 in Merzig.
By bike
The Saar cycle path runs along the outer edge of the Saar
Loop and continues through the Saar.
Churches, mosques, synagogues, temples
1 Lutwinus Church . First
church built in the 8th century as a pilgrimage church, built in its
present form 1842-1847.
2 St Joseph . The chapel originally stood in
Wallerfang, where it was removed in 1878 and rebuilt in Mettlach in
1882.
Buildings
The 1 Old Tower. was built around 990 as a
burial chapel for the founder of the monastery, Lutwinus. It has an
octagonal floor plan and is the oldest medieval building in Saarland.
2 Saareck Castle
3 Montclair Castle. Phone: +49 (0)6861 80235 . The
former hilltop castle on the Saar loop was destroyed around 1351. The
restored and partially rebuilt remains can be visited.
Museums
4 Ceramics Museum . The museum in the Old Mettlach Abbey sheds light on
the history of ceramics in general and more specifically on the history
of the Villeroy & Boch company.
Various
Saar loop and Cloef
vantage point. More on this.
Saarschleife treetop path
1 Villeroy & Boch Factory Outlet, Freiherr-vom-Stein-Strasse 4,66693
Mettlach. Phone: +49(0)6864 2031.
2 Lands' End Outlet Store,
Marktplatz 7,66693 Mettlach. Phone: +49(0)6864 270452.
Tourist Information Mettlach, Freiherr-vom-Stein-Str. 22. Tel.: +49(0)68 65 91 15 0.
A settlement developed from an abbey in the 7th
century
Around 676, the Franconian Duke Lutwinus, who later
became Bishop of Trier, founded an abbey on the site of today's
Mettlach district. Around 990 Abbot Lioffin built a St. Mary's
Church as the founder's grave church. This octagonal church (based
on the model of Aachen Cathedral) is known today as the Old Tower
and is the oldest building in Saarland.
The current abbey
buildings date from the 18th century and were taken over by
Jean-François Boch in 1801 in the course of secularization. They
still house the headquarters of Villeroy & Boch today. On August 13,
1921, the buildings were badly damaged by a major fire (see also
images in the gallery below).
The first bridge connecting
Mettlach with Keuchingen was completed in December 1886. It was
financed by Villeroy & Boch and was initially subject to a toll.
When the bridge was no longer able to cope with the increased volume
of traffic in the 1930s, it was replaced by a new building. This
bridge, inaugurated on November 15, 1936, was destroyed in the
Second World War. It was not until December 24, 1951 that the new
Saar Bridge Mettlach, this time designed as a suspension bridge, was
opened to traffic by Prime Minister Johannes Hoffmann.
On
October 1, 1936, Mettlach and Keuchingen, which had been separate
since July 1, 1778, were reunified. On January 1, 1974, in the
course of the administrative and territorial reform of the Saarland,
the ten independent municipalities of Bethingen, Dreisbach, Faha,
Mettlach, Nohn, Orscholz, Saarhölzbach, Tünsdorf, Wehingen and
Weiten were formed into the new municipality of Mettlach.
In
October 1944 the 416th Infantry Division had its command post in
Keuchingen.
With the revival of the Lutwinus pilgrimage
(every year in the week before Pentecost), Mettlach has been a place
of pilgrimage again since 2003.
Name
There are various
explanations for the origin of the name. According to prevailing
opinion, it goes back to the Romano-Celtic * Metallacum, which in
turn is derived from the Roman personal name Metilius. In part, this
is a learned reinterpretation of the Latin Medius Lacus (literally:
intermediate lake), which used to be the common interpretation. In
Latin texts one finds the name Abattia Mediolacensis for the abbey
founded in 676.
The Coat of Arms was approved by the Ministry of the Interior on
February 9, 1976.
Blazon: "In blue, three (2:1) silver roses with
red seeds and red sepals."
The community formed on January 1,
1974 from the former communities of Bethingen, Dreisbach, Faha,
Mettlach, Nohn, Orscholz, Saarholzbach, Tünsdorf, Wehingen and Weiten
chose a new coat of arms with reference to the former Benedictine Abbey
of Mettlach. At the time of its existence, the abbey exercised dominion
over most of the current municipal area. The Mettlach abbots usually
carried a personal coat of arms. The abbot's coat of arms appeared in
seals and stone carvings in the abbey area. The coat of arms used by the
municipality of Mettlach since February 9, 1976 is the coat of arms of
Abbot Heinrich I (Henri) Lejeune, who held office from 1734 to 1751. The
current graphic design was created by the Mettlach municipal council,
local historian and honorary citizen Reinhold Junges (1919-2014). Junges
also designed the coat of arms of Losheim and that of the district of
Merzig-Wadern.
The blazon of the previous Mettlach coat of arms
read as follows: "Quaded, top right in silver a red crosier emerging
from the division, top left in red a silver scallop shell, bottom right
in blue a silver fish rising from a silver wave foot, bottom left in
black and gold, a silver jug with a left-turned handle. The community
colors are red and white.”
The coat of arms was designed by Kurt
Hoppstädter and became legally valid on June 7, 1963. The abbot's staff
points to Saint Lutwinus, who founded Mettlach Abbey and was Bishop of
Trier. The scallop shell comes from the coat of arms of the Lords of
Sierck, who exercised influence as lords of Montclair Castle. The plate
pattern and the jug indicate the importance of the Mettlach ceramics
industry. The jumping fish comes from an abbot's seal of the 18th
century and points to the former abundance of fish in the Saar.
District of Mettlach
The Mettlach district has 3,108 inhabitants (as
of December 2012) and an area of 9.54 km². It lies between 159 and 388 m
above sea level. Mettlach is located at the exit of the Saar loop on
both sides of the Saar.
Born in Mettlach
René von Boch-Galhau (1843-1908), entrepreneur,
secret commercial councilor
Edmund von Boch (1845–1931),
entrepreneur, honorary mayor
Alfred von Boch (1860-1943), honorary
mayor of Mettlach and acting district administrator of the Saarlouis
district
Ferdinand Jakob Schmidt (1860–1939), philosopher and
educator
Roger von Boch-Galhau (1873–1917), entrepreneur and
landowner
Luitwin von Boch-Galhau (1875–1932), entrepreneur, general
manager of Villeroy & Boch
Matthias Wehr (1892–1967), Bishop of Trier
Luitwin von Boch-Galhau (1906–1988), district administrator of the
Merzig district in 1945, founder of Saarland University, general
director of Villeroy & Boch 1932–1972
Franz Egon von Boch-Galhau
(1909-1981), entrepreneur, farmer and forester, landowner
Karl
Conrath (1910–1992), local writer
Luitwin Gisbert von Boch-Galhau (*
1936), entrepreneur, former general director and honorary member of the
supervisory board of Villeroy & Boch
Wendelin von Boch-Galhau (*
1942), farmer and forester, entrepreneur
Hans Georg Stritter (born
1949), politician
Personalities associated with the community
Jean-François Boch (1782-1858) developed a completely new branch of
industry with the production of what later became known as Mettlacher
slabs (floor tiles).
Heinrich Wilhelm Breidenfeld (1794–1875), organ
builder, built the organ in Mettlach in 1844
Eugen von Boch
(1809–1898), entrepreneur, mayor of Mettlach
Karl August von Cohausen
(1812–1894), architect, art historian, classical scholar, archaeologist;
built the Mettlach church
Franz Georg Himpler (1833–1916) was a
German architect who built the St. Joseph Chapel in Mettlach
Anna
Boch (1848–1936), Impressionist painter from Belgium, spent many
holidays in Mettlach
Eugène Boch (1855–1941), impressionist painter,
friend of Vincent van Gogh, worked in the Mettlach painting school
Wilhelm Gattinger (1861–1927), landscape painter
György Lehoczky
(1901-1979), architect and church window painter, worked among other
things on the parish church of St. Mary in Mettlach-Orscholz
Matt
Lamb (1932–2012), Irish-American painter and peace activist; he set up
one of his studios in 1994 in the Mettlach district of Tünsdorf
Therese Zenz (1932–2019), canoeist, resident in Mettlach
Benjamin
Becker (born 1981), tennis player